What Does LED Stand For?
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What is LED that everyone’s talking about and what does the LED stand for in LED light bulbs?
Simply put, the LED in LED lighting stands for “Light Emitting Diode” which probably doesn’t mean much to the layman, but is explained as follows.
- A diode is an electrical component with two electrodes, namely an anode and a cathode, through which electricity flows.
- The current flows in through the anode, the one electrode in the diode, and out through the cathode, the other electrode.
- Furthermore, the diode in an LED is a semi-conductor as it’s made from materials such as silicon, or selenium, which only conduct electricity in certain circumstances, for instance at a certain voltage, current level or light intensity.
- Therefore, the diodes used for LED lighting are light emitting diodes and are used in all types of ways, for instance the display on digital clocks and watches as well as in LCD TV screens and more.
What Is LED Lighting
So what is LED lighting and how does led lighting work?
In a nutshell, LED lighting consists of tiny light bulbs that are small enough to fit into an electrical circuit.
However, unlike regular incandescent light bulbs, LED lights don’t have filaments that burn to create light.
As a result LED lighting remains cool and uses way less electricity than regular incandessant lights and light bulbs.
LED lights produce illumination by the movement of electrons in a semiconductor material, the diode, and last just as long as a standard transistor.
LED Wattage vs Equivalent Incandescent Light Bulb Wattage
One of the biggest deals that LED lighting has to offer is that for the equivalent lighting power, the LED wattage needed is roughly only 10% of the watts required for a traditional incandescent light bulb to produce the same amount of light.
Therefore, it uses way less electricity for the equivalent amount of light and consequently it’s far more economical too as can be seen in the table below showing the LED wattage compared to the equivalent incandescent light bulb wattage.
| Incandescent Light Bulb Wattage | LED Equivalent Wattage |
|---|---|
| 100 Watt | 10 Watt |
| 75 Watt | 7.5 Watt |
| 60 Watt | 6 Watt |
| 50 Watt | 5 Watt |
| 30 Watt | 3 Watt |
5 Massive Benefits Of LED Lighting
1. LED Lights Last Longer
The life span of an LED light is far superior to that of the regular incandescent light. the short life of an incandescent bulb by thousands of hours. Because of these advantages, tiny LEDs are one of the most popular technologies used to light LCD TVs.
In fact. the average lifespan of an average LED light is 50,000 hours which is roughly forty times longer than your regular light bulb.
This obviously translates to big cost savings in your home or office.
2. LEDs Are Energy Efficient
Lighting efficiency was measured in useful lumens as many lumens are wasted with incandescent lighting whereas there is no waste, and therefore more efficiency, with LED lighting.
To get an idea of the efficiency of LED lighting, you could potentially save more than 60% of your electricity requirements to power an office by replacing all the regular lights with LED lights.
3. Instant Lighting
When you switch on a light you want instant lighting and certainly don’t want to wait for your light bulbs to “warm up” before providing illumination.
For instance, think of how long a fluorescent light flickers before it settles into providing decent light, that’s if it does settle and doesn’t continue flickering or humming.
Well the way LED lights work is that they will provide instant illumination and certainly don’t need warm up period of any sort before doing their job.
Furthermore, switching regular lights on and off usually shortens their lifespan, but with LEDs this doesn’t happen no matter how often you switch them on and off.
4. Low Heat and UV Emissions
Unlike CFL and incandescent lights, LED light bulbs don’t need to heat up a filament to produce light and therefore they don’t radiate heat.
In fact they give off cool light unlike traditional lighting which releases between 80% to 90% of its energy in heat making it more hazardous than LED lighting as well.
LEDs energy is mostly converted to producing light with a small amount as infrared light and virtually nothing as UV light.
Besides being safer, it also means that LED lighting can be used ti illuminate objects such as art which can be damaged over time when exposed to ultraviolet light.
5. Environmentally Friendly
LED lights tick many boxes when it comes to protecting the environment especially considering they don’t contain mercury and can be recycled.
Furthermore, requiring so much less electricity than traditional lighting for the same amount of light ticks another box for protbeing eco-friendly.
More On LED Lighting
LED lighting technology has been around for many years but has only recently been developed to the extent that it’s become more effective, reliable and affordable.
LEDs also operate on low voltages which makes them safe and easy to use in outdoor situations, for example strip lighting in gardens.
Not only are LED light prices way cheaper than they used to be, but when the electricity savings are factored in, using LEDs is a no-brainer.
Furthermore, choosing re-chargeable LED light bulbs makes so much sense as you’ll have perfect lighting during power outages and makes a great load shedding solution in South Africa.
Now that you have a clearer idea of what the LED is in LED lighting, there’s nothing stopping you from converting your home’s lighting requirements to LED to become more eco-friendly and save money.